The vaccination drive for Covid-19 which began with a lot of hype in Andhra Pradesh a few months ago has suddenly slowed down to a large extent, drawing criticism from the opposition parties.
On Monday, the vaccination drive came to a halt in several districts due to lack of sufficient quantities of vaccine and the lack of enough supplies from the Centre.
As a result, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government has decided to restrict the vaccination to only second dose, till the supplies are increased.
Jagan, who held a high-level meeting of the officials on Covid-19 situation, said the state had no role to play in the vaccination drive.
He said the entire programme was under the control of the Centre, which is deciding on the number of doses of vaccine to be sold to states. The states, in turn, would buy the sanctioned quota by paying the money in advance.
“Even if the state wants to buy vaccines directly from the manufacturing companies, the centre is instructing them on the number of doses to be sold to the states,” the chief minister said, adding that the current situation on vaccination should be explained to the people.
He said despite knowing that production of vaccine and their availability are not in the control of state government, some vested politicians and a section of media are propagating false information on vaccination and creating tension and fear among the people of the state.
He said it will take six months to complete Vaccination process in the state provided that one crore vaccines are supplied per month.
He said only 19 lakh doses of Vaccine on average are being supplied to the state per month and instructed the officials to think of going for global tenders on vaccine purchase.
He said there should be no rush at Vaccination centers and added that ANMs and Asha workers should be clearly informed on Vaccination details so that long queues can be avoided.
He said to arrange chairs at Vaccination centers for the comfort of people. He said people should be informed that every one would receive vaccine free of cost by the government.
